Scarlet Arrows
by WritingforYou00
Summary: When Dakota Steadwright and her little sister Maddison are rescued by the recently awoken Rick Grimes, they don't realise just how much of an impact they would make upon the Atlanta group, and how they would help them survive, thrive, and find their place within the new world. First Walking Dead story, please don't flame!
1. Meeting Officer Friendly

**AN: Okay, so whilst both of my character are southerners, I refuse to write the storyline the way they'll speak, helps make sense of it. This is my first Walking Dead story and it is inspired by my best friend Maddison :D. We both have an obsessions with TWD so she said that it would be cool to write about how The Walking Dead would've went down if there were sisters added so I thought why not?**

**WARNING: The main character of this story will have a tendency to swear and use racial slurs. I am not racist personally but this character MAY be using racist language.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Walking Dead, if I did Sophia wouldn't have died and I would have loads of money.**

**-WooILoveWalkingDeadSooMuchICantWaitForSeason5AndILoveDarylDixonSoMuchIWishMyCharacterWasInTheWalkingDeadWhyAmIDoingThis-**

Where were you in the weeks that the walker began to spread throughout the world? Were you prepared, did anyone in your family die, did you see friends turn into monsters before your very eyes? My story is probably one you have seen before, lonely people in an apocalypse learning to adapt and survive, but I will tell it anyway, so that others will know.

I originally encountered the walkers in my hometown. Nashville's backwoods streets were probably the luckiest places in Tennessee when we had the shambling remains of people stumble through. Nearly every house had more than one gun, and several had a whole array of weapons. But it didn't stop the walkers from taking several people down with them, I witnessed several of the deaths myself, watched my own father get bitten and mauled from the backseat of his car. Then it was just me, my momma, three brothers and my little sister, plus several other survivors. Slowly the walkers whittled us down in numbers, until it was just me, my 15 year old brother Linkin and my 10 year old sister Maddison. I'm 25 and could look after us pretty well, but eventually we joined a group of about 30 men, women and children. We stayed for a while, even made some friends, but Linkin got caught stealing and was sentenced to the only punishment possible in the camp, death by hanging. A friend of his helped distract the leader and guards whilst I shot Linkin down, and we ran. That was three days ago, since then Linkin and his friend were recaptured and it was just me and Maddi, and thats where it really begins.

"I don' think I can run any further!" Maddi panted, her long reddish copper hair whipping around her, she clutched my hand as we sprinted through dense forests, three walkers ran sluggishly after us. I hastily looked back and regretted it, because not even a second later I was forced to withdraw my hand from my sister's grip as I crashed into a tree, one of its thornier branches broke the skin just above my hip, penetrating a few centimetres deep, I cried out but kept running after Maddi, who had slowed slightly to allow me to catch up, we were nearing the road and I swore I could hear a car stopping, but I didn't stop to think as we reached a steep hill downwards that led to the main road, where a police car was parked and a man just getting out, Maddison stopped but I didn't, and I crashed down the hill with tremendous force, rolling at least seven times before the side of my head collided with another tree, Maddi screamed and came down after me, a little slower and steadier so as not to repeat my accident. My vision began to blur around the sides, and her voice was dimming, she seemed to be shouting for help, never noticing one of the walkers, a young teenage girl with most of her left cheek torn off, attempting to follow us, I opened my mouth to warn her but all that came out was a pain-filled moan. She looked in my direction and I lifted my arm clumsily to point in the direction of the walker, who's two friends could be here at any minute, she noticed and slid her knife out the strap on her right leg, same as mine, as the walker came down I noticed she wore an Elmo shirt with hearts. _'Kinda lame for a girl at that age ain't it?'_ I thought, Maddi, being about a whole foot shorter than Elmo Girl, kicked its legs out from under it and then jammed the knife through its skull, Elmo Girl shuddered and then lay still, the pungent black blood oozing out the wound, Maddison then came up to me and I saw her lips moving, but couldn't really hear the words, a warm hand wrapped around my arm and I turned my head slightly to see an older looking man wearing a Sheriff Deputy uniform, his lips moved as well and I caught a few words here and there

"Are... don't worry... Rick Grimes, your sister... can you stand?" So Rick was his name, I opened my mouth again and this time a raspy "No" fell past my lips, he nodded in understanding and lifted me into his arms, grunting in pain as my forehead connected with his chin, I could only hope my weapons were still intact from the fall, but my sister seemed to be doing a good job handling herself, having already dispatched Elmo Girl and having moved on to a guy with a checkered hat, Checker Boy didn't last long and Rick carried me to the metal railings before stepping over and placing me in the shotgun seat, the last walker, a fat builder, moved to chomp on Maddi just as Rick took aim and fired, sending a bullet clean through its head. The last thing I remembered was seeing him check Maddi over for bites before they took three steps to the car. Then all that was in front of me turned to black and I knew no more.

**-WooILoveWalkingDeadSooMuchICantWaitForSeason5AndILoveDarylDixonSoMuchIWishMyCharacterWasInTheWalkingDeadWhyAmIDoingThis-**

"Hey, you okay?" Were the first words I heard as my eyelids fluttered open, I was still a bit uneasy about the Sheriff guy, Rick, I think he said his name was, whilst he wore a uniform and had helped me people these days were very untrustworthy and generally wanted something in return, I voiced this opinion and he sighed, almost as if he had heard this kind of thing before.

"I just woke up from a coma a few days ago, I have no idea what happened, I'm just trying to find my wife and son" A pang of pity erupted inside of me, I knew how it felt to not know what had happened to family and friends.

"We should probably start walking ya know, Rick here said this car broke down" Maddi came into view then, her dirty and cut face betraying the concern she felt for my well being. For a little girl she was awfully sensible and tended to treat me like I was the 10 year old. She got it from our mother, Maisie.

"Okay, so I s'pose yur coming with us then?" I asked him, I got a firm nod and a "Yes Ma'am" from Rick and then we set off down the road, to begin our journey through the new world.

**Didn't want it to be too long because it was kinda a profile scale. Sorry if it wasn't long enough for you all but I wanted to keep it short. Constructive criticism is welcome as long as you don't insult me. Love Ya'll!**


	2. Cigarettes On The Rooftop

**Hi there! So I prewrote a few of my chapters because I feel like that way I can't get writers block halfway through a story, and so we get weekly updates on Tuesday's... hopefully. This story will hopefully continue quite long, and people who have read my Harry Potter fanfiction will know I am not the best updater. No more Disclaimers seeing as one at the start should be enough.**

Thankfully it was still light when we reached a random house, Rick decided he was going to knock on the door and see if anyone was in. The place was quiet and the house itself had a strange smell about it, Maddi looked at me and I knew we were both thinking the same thing, either nobody was in the house anymore, or they were rotting away with no thoughts about opening the door.

"Listen, Captain Comatose, I don' think anybody lives here, and if they do I don' think they exactly livin' here" I said slowly, attempting to catch his attention, he ignored me and looked through a window, which he recoiled from incredibly quickly and walked away, I looked myself, and drew in a sharp breath. A woman lay on the floor, a hole in her head. The man whom I presumed to be her husband had blow the back of his head away with a shotgun that now hung limply in his hands. Like quite a lot of people these two had taken the easy way out, something I had considered myself. But then I had remembered how much my sister needed me, and the thought never crossed my mind again.

"Well, I'll be damned, seems they didn' even need any help from our oh so lovin' walkin' dead" I muttered, earning a warning glance from Maddison. Rick went around the back of the house and we followed, watching as he checked a car, his gaze turned and I followed it, noticing a lone horse trotting around a field.

"Easy now, easy, I'm not gonna hurt you, nothing like that. More like a proposal, Atlanta's down the road ways, it's safe there, food, shelter, people, other horses too, I bet. How's that sound? There we go." Great, we were travelling with a guy that talked to horses, I walked over and reached up to pat the horse's neck, admiring just how beautiful this animal could look even during all this mess. Rick led it out of the field with words of "Good boy" and "Now come with me". Once it was saddled up I walked over and raised a single eyebrow inquiringly, he shrugged and mounted the horse, helping Maddi up first before allowing me on.

"Lets go easy, okay? I haven't done this for years." I sighed in relief that he had at least rode a horse before, but my relief was short as he flicked the reins and the horse began to move in a very shaky manner, I gulped and clutched Maddi a little bit close to me.

"Easy, easy boy. Easy, easy, easy." Did nothing to help as we headed towards this supposed safe haven in Atlanta, where I hoped we had a chance.

**-YayNewRandomRamblingThisWillGoOnEveryChapterJustSoYouKnowSoGetUsedToItILoveWalkingDeadAndExpectMorethanTwoOrThreeOCsInThis-**

Entering the city wasn't a problem, we got through and were riding past a bus when two walkers inside a bus stirred, growling in that disgusting way, Rick's horse faltered and began to veer, which caused Rick to tighten his hold on the reins to get it back on track.

"Steady. It's just a few, nothing we can't outrun" He assured the animal, it in turn did not listen and we went from a slow trot to an unsteady gallop, suddenly the heavy sound of a chopper came and we looked around, only to see the reflection of a helicopter in the walls of a glass building, Rick increased the speed of the horse, avoiding the undead until we turned a corner.

"Oh shit!" I yelped, withdrawing my gun. About 50-70 walkers stood in front of us, snarling hungrily at the sight of four living, breathing mammals. Maddi screamed Rick turned the horse around to get away

"Okay, whoa whoa whoa" We managed to get so far, but a cluster of walkers clung to the poor creature's body and pulled it down, we scrambled off and Rick dropped a bag, containing all the weapons inside. Maddi went to get it but I grabbed her coat collar and dragged her along with us, we dropped to the ground in front of a tank and began to crawl under, for a moment I thought we were gonna die, and I began to cry silent tears until a memory flashed through my head.

"Maddi! Do you remember what dad used to say about when he joined the army, about the escape route they had for tanks" She nodded and went to open her mouth, probably to reply, when she gave a small nod and crawled to open the hatch, just as Rick put the gun to his head, I grabbed his arm and pointed up, and he nodded and crawled up after me. Once inside I slid to the back, next to a dead soldier, he had a gun and a grenade in his pockets so I tossed them to Rick, then lay back and closed my eyes.

"Dakota" My sister yelled to me, I didn't bother opening my eyes, just unsheathed by knife and pushed it through the forehead of the snarling soldier next to me

"Shuddup" I told him angrily, withdrawing the blade and wiping it on my jeans (covered in blood, dirt and ripped in several places). Rick had already closed the hatch and we sat for a while before hearing a voice crackle over a radio.

"Hey you, dumb ass. Hey, you three there in the tank, you cozy in there?".

"Hey, are you alive in there?" We just sat there in shock, surprised that someone had been able to see us and not get attacked, eventually Rick grabbed the radio

"Hello, hello?" He replied, then the voice came across again

"There you are, you had me wondering" I motioned for Rick to talk again and he pulled the radio to his mouth.

"Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" He asked, Maddi crawled over to the Rick's left hand side and listened in eagerly, whilst I went to the right

"Yeah, I can see you. Your surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news." I perked up then and snatched the radio off Rick

"Are you tellin' me there's GOOD news bout this?" I asked, the guy on the other side was beginning to piss me off with his funny attitude. He hesitated for quite a while before answering back

"No" I closed my eyes and slowly counted to ten, which gave Rick the chance to take the radio back.

"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here." 'Yeah, you and me both Captain Comatose' I thought, pulling my main weapon off my back, it was a lil' worn down now, but the fine oak bow served me well for quiet kills, shame I usually ran out of arrows and had to make crude versions myself, this, along with my knife and gun kept me alive, same as my sisters knife and gun kept her alive.

"Oh should see it from over 'd guys would be having a major freak-out." Maddi gave a small whimper, panicked at the thought of hundreds of walkers crawling over our heads, this guy sure knew how to make you feel safe,

"Got any advice for us?"

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it." I took the walkie again

"Make a run for it? Dude, are you outta yur god damn mind?" I demanded, he answered back, sharp and sounding a tad bit frustrated.

"My way's not as dumb as it sounds. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. With me so far?"

"I dunno, maybe"

"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you three move now while they're distracted, you guys stand a ammo?"

In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?" Rick asked, leaning to speak into the walkie in my hand, the man gave a small sigh

"Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option. What do you have on you?"

"Hang on. Yeah, Yeah. I've got a Beretta with one clip, 15 rounds. I don't know about my friends though" I checked my gun and so did Maddi

"Rick, I got 9, she's got another 10 in hers, I've got 5 arrows s'well" He relayed the information back to Radio Guy.

"Make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there." My sister and I headed for the tank hatch on the top, yet Rick stayed where he was

"Hey, what's your name?" What was this, speed dating? We didn't have time for introductions!

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time." Seems Radio Guy shared my opinion, we opened the hatch slowly and clambered out, Rick grabbed a shovel on the way and we stood atop the tank, the lone walker Radio Guy had mentioned came shambling up to us, but a quick smack from the shovel sent him tumbling down. We ran in the direction the dude had told us, shooting up some walkers on the way, when we turned a corner and an asian man stood there, I almost ploughed into him and Rick aimed his gun at the guys head, causing him to lift his hands.

"Ah! Whoa! Not dead! Come on! Come on! Back here! Come on! Come on! What are you doing?! Come on! Come on, get up." We were right on his heels and got up hurriedly, he looked us over thoughtfully. "Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town? And how about you Lara Croft? And the little girl your with?" I laughed at that. I always did like the Tomb Raider games as a kid. Rick shook his head

"It wasn't my intention." I voiced my agreement, the asian shook his head

"Yeah, you're both still dumbasses."

"Rick. Thanks, and this is Dakota and Maddison"

"Glenn. You're welcome." And with that he advanced to a much higher ladder that made my stomach compact into a tiny cube and my heart to try to escape through my ribcage, god, I could kill a walker but when it came to heights and spiders I was like a baby.

"The bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us." I looked at him in horror

"Is that s'posed to make me feel better?!" He just shrugged nonchalantly, we climbed up and saw the alley down below was barricaded by a huge truck. Rick asked the question I was thinking

"Are you the one that barricaded the alley?"

"Somebody did, I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through." Geeks? What kind of name was that

"Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck out for us?" Rick questioned, Glenn laughed

"Call it foolish, naive hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you." Had to agree with that one, I looked up from the third ladder I was climbing that day at Maddi, who had barely said a word, she smiled down at me wearily before following my lead. We got onto the stairs in the alley and noticed a couple of walkers stumbling round; obviously not as safe as Glenn thought

"I'm guests plus four geeks in the alley." So there were others with him, I thanked god that there were more survivors to help us. Just then two people, men I presumed, dressed in some sort of black clothing and holding bats sprinted out of the door ahead of us and began to beat the walkers, the four of us ran around them and into the building where a blonde woman accosted us with a gun.

"You sons of bitches. We ought to kill you all!" She yelled, my sight began to take on a red hue and I stepped in front of Rick and got real close to the gun

"Get that god damn gun outta mah face!" I spat, my hand reaching for my own gun, the other two guys came in then and words began to float through the air

"Just chill out, Andrea!"

"Back off."

"Come on, ease up."

"Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of these stupid assholes." Maddi tucked herself behind Rick and I took a menacing step forward, the dumb blonde bitch stepped back and I noticed the safety was on her gun.

"Whatchu gon' do lady, you can' even tell that yur gun ain't gon' fire shit at me!" Okay, so my taunting behaviour was doing more damage than good, but I wasn't gonna back down from her.

"Andrea, I said back the hell off." One of the men had taken his mask off and he was attempting to order her to put the gun down. She dropped it reluctantly but continued her rant

"We're dead, all of us, because of you three." Me and Rick shared a look of bewilderment

"I don't understand." Rick said, the man that had told this Andrea to back off, a mexican or spanish looking man, beckoned Rick to follow him

"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O. K. geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds. You just rang the dinner bell." He explained "Get the picture now? Oh God. What the hell were you doing out there anyway?"

"Trying to flag the helicopter." Rick replied, the man laughed.

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter. You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens."

"I saw it" Rick insisted

"Yeah, I saw it too, at least it's reflection" Rick looked at me and mouthed a silent thanks for speaking up

"Hey, T-Dog, try that CB." the guy said, T-Dog, the man had called the black guy, began to test the radio.

"Can you contact the others?" Rick asked, the unnamed man looked confused

"Others?"

"The refugee centre?"

"Yeah, the refugee centre. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us." By the sounds of it they hadn't seen no refugee centre, same as us.

"Got no signal. Maybe the roof." T-Dog suggested, they began to talk when shots fired above us, the members of the scavenger group looked at each other in horror

"Oh no."

"Is that Dixon?" Andrea piped up worriedly

"What is that maniac doing? Come on, let's go." With that they all took off, with me, Rick and Maddi bringing up the rear.

We got up and noticed a middle-aged man standing on the roof holding a shotgun and firing into the streets below.

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy? Oh jeez."

"Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Ah! Only common sense." Yay, we were stuck on a roof with a complete jerk, I pushed Maddi behind me just in case he turned that gun round.

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got! And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill." Judging from the look on this Dixon's face it was the wrong thing for T-Dog to say

"Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day." He spat back, jumping down from the ledge

"That'll be the day? You got something you want to tell me?" I closed my eyes and groaned, bad, bad thing to say.

"Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it all right? It ain't worth it." Even the dark haired guy agreed with me, but T-Dog was adamant.

"No."

"Now Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble."

"You want to know the day?" Merle taunted, coming a bit closer.

"Yeah."

"I'll tell you the day, Mr Yo. It's the day I take orders from a nigger." Oh god, the guy was racist as well, both me and Rick were beginning to realise this wasn't gonna end well, so I whispered to Maddi to go stand by the door whilst Rick and I advanced slowly. T-Dog blinked twice before a reaction kicked in

"Mother-" And with that he attacked Merle, but Merle was quicker and a lot more used to fighting than T-Dog, who was soon sent reeling.

"Hey, come on, Merle. That's enough." The spanish guy (Morales from what I could hear from Andrea's voice) begged to no avail

"Come on." Andrea pleaded, Rick attempted to stop it but was soon on the delivering end of a punch from Merle, people soon began screaming.

"Dixon!"

"Whoa, cut it out, man!"

Stop it! Dixon, get off him!"

Dixon, you're gonna hurt him."

"Merle, cut it out! No no no, please. Please." It ended with Merle holding a gun to T-Dog, as the thunder rumbled and T-Dog whimpered on the ground, Merle grinned and looked at the group in front of him.

"Yeah! All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favour? Huh? Comon. Let's see 'em. Oh, come on. All in favour?" Slowly they all raised their hands, hoping that he wouldn't shoot their friend. " 's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?" Rick stood up then, having regained focus, he pulled out and pair of handcuffs and charged Dixon, bringing him down, with a final click he attached the one cuff to a thick pipe, the other to Merle

"Yeah." He said, standing up, I leapt over a pipe and stood next to Rick, smirking.

"Who the hell are you, man?!"

"Officer friendly. Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."

"Screw you, man." Was all the Georgia redneck said

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point." Rick pointed out, Merle looked at him

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun." I hid my laughter behind a cough, nice way to insult him, using his own words against him. "Only common sense." the Georgia boy looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"You wouldn't. You're a cop."

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that. Got some on your nose there" Ahh, so the jackass was high as well as an idiot

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me?" He started laughing, so I knelt down and rooted around for his stash, I found it quite quickly and watched his laughter die and his face turn sour as I threw it over the side of the building. "Hey! What are you doing bitch? That was my stuff! Hey! If I get loose, you'd better pray yeah, you hear me, you pig?! You hear me?!

"Oh, I can hear you, I jus' wish I couldn'" I informed him, he kept on ranting whilst me and Rick talked to Morales

"You're not Atlanta P. D. Where you from?" He pointed out, I turned around and whistled for Maddi to come over, and she left the safety of the door and clutched my leg, not worried about getting dirt on her filthy yellow blouse or light blue jeans. Her hair was tied into messy ponytails either side of her head, not that mine was any better, it was an almost scarlet red from hair dye, and I wore a leather jacket that was peeling, and black corseted top and dark blue jeans, my brown hiking boots were worn and scuffed and my hair just past my shoulders. I decided to listen in on what Rick had to say

"Up the road a ways" Rick replied

"Well, officer friendly from up the road a ways, welcome to the big city."

**-YayNewRandomRamblingThisWillGoOnEveryChapterJustSoYouKnowSoGetUsedToItILoveWalkingDeadAndExpectMorethanTwoOrThreeOCsInThis-**

"How's that signal?" Morales asked T-Dog

"Like Dixon's brain, weak" T-Dog answered, Merle responded to this insult by flipping the black man off, Morales sagged with disappointment

"I'll keep trying."

"Why? There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing." I turned to Morales

"Nothin' who can do?"

"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee centre. That's a pipe dream." I'd kinda guessed that by now, but for someone to confirm my suspicions put me in a worse mood than beforehand.

"It's up to us to find a way out." Rick said, Merle chuckled darkly and leaned his head against the pipes behind him.

"Good luck with that, these streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear. Ain't that right, sugar tits? Hey, honeybunch, what say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway." He directed this at Andrea, who's lip curled in revulsion

"I'd rather" She said, I laughed and shepherded Maddi towards the stairs when he spoke again

"I figured as much. How bout you gorgeous, wanna go knock boots?" I stood there, pretending I was thinking it over before replying sweetly, with a single hand on my hip

"Oh sugar, you couldn' handle me!" And with that I left him staring speechless as I flounced down the stairs, mine and Maddi's laughter echoing throughout the landings.

We waited in the department store for ages before most of the group came down, they continued into the bottom floor, where a huge drainage tunnel sat, we peered around at what we could see before Glenn looked hesitantly at Jacqui, the black lady with us

"This is it? Are you sure? I really scoped this place out the other times I was here. It's the only thing in the building that goes down, but I've never gone down it. Who'd want to, right?" Thats when he noticed every single one of us looking at him, Glenn swallowed loudly "Oh. Great."

"We'll be right behind you." He was assured

"No, you won't. Not you."

"Why not me? Think I can't?"

"I wasn't-" Rick cut Glenn off quickly

"Speak your mind." He said, Glenn sighed, sensing defeat.

"Look, until now I always came here by myself, in and out, grab a few things, no problem. The first time I bring a group everything goes to hell. No offence. If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine But only if we do it my way. It's tight down there, if I run into something and have to get out quick, I don't want you all jammed up behind me getting me killed. I'll take one person" Rick stepped up "Not you either,

you've got Merle's gun and I've seen you shoot. I'd feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors, covering our ass. And you've got one of the only other guns Andrea, so you should go with him." He turned to Morales "You be my wingman, Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us, get us back up here in a hurry, Dakota, you go up and keep an eye on Merle, just in case he tries anything with just T-Dog around" I nodded my head

"Okay."

"Okay, everybody knows their jobs." With that Rick and Andrea went off one way, Glenn and Morales descended down the sewers and me and Maddi ascended up the stairs, T-Dog was still attempting to get someone to answer him on the radio.

"Anybody out there? Hello? Anybody read? I'm hoping to hear somebody's voice 'cause I'm getting sick and tired of hearing mine." I leaned against a pipe a few meters away from Merle, with Maddi sitting on it right next to me. Merle looked at T-Dog lazily

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us. Why don't you knock that crap off? You're giving me a headache, boy."

"Why don't you pull your head out of your ass? Maybe your headache will go away." I laughed and Merle's head swung in my direction

"Apply cold water to THA' burn for bout an hour" I told him tauntingly, he glared for a while as T-Dog chuckled

"Try some positivity for a change. Damn." Merle just smirked

"I'll tell you what, you get me out of these cuffs and I'll be all 'Sammy Sunshine' positive for you. Hey, see that hacksaw over there in that tool bag? Get it for me, hmm? Make it worth your while. What do you say, man? Come on. Get me out of these things."

"So you can beat my ass again? Or call me nigger some more?"

"Come on now. It wasn't personal, it's just that your kind and my kind ain't meant to mix, that's all, it don't mean we can't work together, parley, as long as there's some kind of mutual gain involved."

"Wha' mutual gain? So you go free, and he don' get beaten up by you?" I said accusingly, my arms folded

"I swear, comon, help ol' Merle out and I'll have your back"

"If by back you mean yur gonna kill the cop and then help us, then no, I don' think so" Maddi replied, hopping off the weathered pipes and walking closer to him, Dixon looked a little shocked that a kid so young was back-chatting him like that, but he quickly removed the expression from his face.

"And what're you gonna do lil' girl?" He asked, sneering, I rolled my eyes and asked T-Dog to fetch me a cable from downstairs I had dropped that might help with the radio, this was a lie of course but if I wanted to talk to Merle properly I had to make sure he wasn't distracted, I sent Maddi away too.

"Look, Merle" I held the 'er' in his name and came over, sitting only about 10cm away "I could probably get the keys off Rick and unlock them cuffs, but I need to know that you ain't gon' kill him, Since you don' actually have a weapon am hoping you won' attempt to kill me s'well" He just stared at me for awhile, so I moved away, then he spoke

"Fine! ya got yourself a damn deal, but ya do realise that you could free me, then I could just easily take back my gun and kill ya'll?" I confirmed that yes, I knew he could do that, but if he tried anything to hurt anyone, he would be dead.

"I don' doubt ya girlie"

"Yeah, ya shouldn'" I told him, my grip on the handle of my gun tightening. He held eye contact for a while before letting out a bark-like laugh and turning away, muttering about stubborn bitches, I couldn't help the smile that flickered across my face,

"You always this much of a bitch?" He asked me, I spluttered and stood up

"Actually, this is me bein' nice" I replied sarcastically, he scoffed at me and I began to rummage through my bag for something to get all the panic off my mind, my fingers wrapped around a small cardboard box and I pulled out a pack of cigarettes,

"Bingo!" I mumbled, striking up a match from the other box I picked and setting the it alight, the first puff was heaven and I sighed in contentment

"How bout you give one to your ole friend Merle" Deciding he deserved one, after being handcuffed to the roof, I lit another and passed it to him, he took a long drag and chuckled

"Ya know, for a rude son of a bitch you ain't that bad" We continued to talk and smoke for another ten minutes before T-Dog burst through the door

"Hey, I couldn't find your cable, but they got a plan downstairs so we need to go help" I nodded my goodbyes to Merle and followed T-Dog down the stairs, to whatever Rick had planned.

**-YayNewRandomRamblingThisWillGoOnEveryChapterJustSoYouKnowSoGetUsedToItILoveWalkingDeadAndExpectMorethanTwoOrThreeOCsInThis-**

I stopped to go find Maddi and came in to see a dead walker on the ground, and everyone wearing some sort of protective stuff and carrying weapons.

"What. The hell?" I asked, this was their plan? Get and walker and do... something? Rick fished around in the walkers pocket and pulled out a wallet

"Wayne Dunlap. Georgia license. Born in 1979. He had $28 in his pocket when he died, and a picture of a pretty girl. With love, from Rachel. He used to be like us, worrying about bills or the rent or the Super Bowl. If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne." I scoffed and they turned to look at me

"What? You gon' tell them that ya butchered the guy too?" He looked away, but I saw the doubt in his eyes. Glenn took another look at the guys stuff

"One more thing, he was an organ donor." I almost laughed at the irony, but held back 'Well, he's donatin' a whole lot more than organs'. Then Rick raised his weapon and slammed it down on Wayne's stomach, it split open and sticky black blood spewed all over, along with the occasional entrails, they all joined in soon, though some made protest about it

"Oh! Madre de Dios! Oh! God! Gack! Oh God!"

"Oh."

"Dios! Oh God."

"Keep chopping." Rick ordered us, my stomach heaved as I smashed the dead guys head, the skull inside has went soft so it was like biting through a moldy apple, the sledgehammer went splish when it connected with Wayne's head, and pieces of rubbery bone, mushed brains and fountains of blood poured out, Maddi had ran up to the roof the moment Rick had raised his axe. I took a deep breath to avoid bringing up any food I probably ate, but I wasn't the only one.

"I am so gonna hurl. Later." Glenn groaned,

"Everybody got gloves? Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes." I gingerly picked up a handful of brain and slopped it on Glenn's chest, after a while it wasn't so bad, so I chuckled a little when I threw it at the two, every time I laughed someone would look at me like I was crazy, which was possible.

"Now, can someone tell me why we're even doin' this?" I asked

"We need a car to get out, so we're gonna disguise our smell and attempt to make it to one of them vans down the street" What?! Was he stupid or something? I was gonna go with the or something for now.

"Think about something else. Puppies and kittens."

"Dead puppies and kittens." Glenn muttered, I could see his point, it was a disgusting thing, but a little nice to be able to smash one of the damn things without it trying to chomp ya.

"Do we smell like them?" Rick asked, Morales scoffed

"I'll give you a lil' clue, I could probably smell ya'll from a mile way" I replied, face twisting into a horrific grimace, whilst I could touch the stuff, being covered in it head to toe? Yuck, yuck, double yuck.

"What about Merle Dixon?" T-Dog asked, Rick thought it over, then handed T-Dog the keys

"Give me the axe. We need more guts." I took the clothes off, then went upstairs after T-Dog, he went back to attempting the radio and it seemed my sister was avoiding Merle s'much as possible.

"Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me? Can anybody out there hear me?" Over our heads, thunder rumbled in the distance

"That assholes is out on the street with the handcuff keys?" T-Dog held the keys up for Merle to see and I wondered how I could get the keys off T-Dog to make sure he actually unchained Merle, it wasn't that I liked Merle, but nobody should be left alone.

"Hello, base camp! Can anybody out there hear me? Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me? Hello? Hello? Reception's bad on this end. Shane, is that you? We're in some deep shit. We're trapped in the department store. There are geeks all over the place. Hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded." For moment it seemed like we might have help, then the radio signal cut off and all hope went with it. I jumped and slid my knife out the strap on my leg, ready to kill some of them walkers, but it was just Morales and the rest, they headed to the side and when I reached there held my hand out for the binoculars, I looked down and saw Rick and Glenn, dripping with walker innards, slowly shambling through the streets. I had to admit, they looked the part.

"It's gonna work. I can't believe it." Morales whispered, the clouds over our heads decided now was a good time to start raining, and I laughed, this time at our misfortune

"Damn, which do ya bet walkers like better? Chow Mein or Southern Fried?" Morales ripped the binoculars outta my hands and looked up

"It's just a cloudburst. We get 'em all the time. It'll pass real quick." 'Yeah' I thought 'But will it be quick enough?' And it wasn't, because soon after gunshots fired, and a car could be heard, followed quickly by the sound of Andrea

"They're leaving us!"

"What? What? Where they going? Where they going? No no, come back." Panic had ignited, but I stood still, with Maddi clutching at my leg, with one thought running through my mind.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

" The roll-up shutters Andrea, come with me so I can open them!" I grabbed Maddison's hand and the three of us ran down to the shutters and tried our hardest to open them, eventually Jacqui and Morales helped us, and we got into the back of the van when it came.

"Where the hell is T-Dog and Merle?" I demanded, Morales mumbled something about T-Dog getting Merle out when the man himself ran out the door and jumped into the van.

Without Merle Dixon.

He did not have Merle Dixon.

"Where's Dixon?" Maddi asked, he shut the back of the van and looked at her

"I dropped the damn key." My throat constricted, oh god, that man was up there, alone, with a whole ton of walkers to deal with. I stood up and went to open the van when he jumped in front of me

"Move outta mah way" I growled, he shook his head

"I'm sorry, I know you wanted to help him, but I padlocked the door, so he's safe for now" His assurances did nothing for me, we had left a man to die

"Tha's great, but I'm still goin' to help him, now move" I stepped to the side and he followed, same as when I tried anything to get past, he brandished Merle's gun and I sneered

"You gon' shoot me now?" I stepped closer "Go 'head, do it cause it's the only way yur gon' stop me from leavin'"

"I'm sorry" He said, then swung the butt of the gun at my head, it impacted and the last thing I remembered was hitting the ground, while Maddi screamed...

**That marks the end to this chapter, from now on I might be adding in Maddi's POV. Just to get a different view on things. Now excuse me whilst I go stare obsessively at pictures of Daryl Dixon.**


	3. The Jackass Brother

**Hi there my fellow TWD fans! So I hope you all enjoyed my last chapter, and now we move on to meeting our favourite male redneck!**

**-THEWALKINGDEADTHEWALKINGDEADTHEWALKINGDEADTHEWALKINGDEAD-**

**Maddi POV**

"Is she gon' be okay?" I asked the blonde lady, Andrea I think, she scooted over to Dakota and checked the side of her head, where a pretty big bruise was forming, I could hardly hold back my tears, or stop myself from glaring at T-Dog.

"Did he have to hit her so hard?" I whispered to Andrea, she sighed

"Yes, otherwise your sister would have gotten herself killed, or us, and do you want that?" I told her no, and grabbed Dakota's limp hand. The van pulled to a stop and Morales turn to Mr Grimes

"Come meet everybody." We opened the doors and Andrea rushed out to meet a blonde young woman

"Amy." She cried, the girl Amy met her halfway

"Andrea! Oh! Oh my God! You scared the shit out of me." Soon reunions were all around and I felt jealous, everyone was seeing each other and my big sister was unconscious in the back of a truck. I jumped down just as I caught some of their conversation. A dark haired man was asking how they got out

"A new guy got us out, came with a woman and that kid there" He pointed to me, and my face burned in embarrassment as heads swung in my direction

"New guy?" The dark haired guy asked, he had a stern but kind face, with dark eyes

"Yeah, crazy vato just got into town, along with some redneck lady and her sister. Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello." Mr Grimes shut the door and began to walk over, I ran to his side and grabbed his arm "The guy's a cop like you." We came into view and a little boy saw him, his face lit up in delight

"Dad! Dad!" Mr Grimes began to cry, then shook me off and ran to hug who I guessed to be his son

"Carl." He said over and over, T-Dog seemed to remember Dakota then

"Hey Shane! We got another girl in here, wouldn't mind carrying her to the tent would you?" The man suited the name Shane, he came into the van and picked her up before taking her into a tent, I stood by myself for a while before a little blonde girl and a woman with a shaven head came over to me, they seemed timid but nice.

"Excuse me, little girl, would you like to come with us?" I nodded and the woman took my hand

"I'm Carol, this is my daughter Sophia" I said hello and Carol took me to her tent and wiped some of the blood away that had been left on my face.

"Thank you ma'am" I said, she smiled and I left the tent to go stay with my sister.

"Disoriented. I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion, all those things but disoriented comes closest. Words can be meagre things. Sometimes they fall short. I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever." I listened, enthralled by the words coming out of Mr Grimes' mouth, he seemed so smart and wise

"Mom said you died." His son Carl said, Mrs Grimes turned away, ashamed, but her husband defended her.

"She had every reason to believe that."

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Mrs Grimes said, trying to make up for her mistake.

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell.

"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun." Mr Grimes said, Shane snorted

"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?"

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it. There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." It was really silent for a while, until a man at another camp with Sophia and Carol got up to put another log in the fire, wood clattered and Shane glanced over

"Hey, Ed, you wanna rethink that log?" His voice was normal, but I could tell he was getting annoyed with the guy, Ed grunted

"It's cold, man."

"The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers - so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"

"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once." I decided then that this guy was a big jerk, I hoped he met Dakota cause she would kick his butt. Shane stood up and walked over, patting Ed's shoulder

"Hey, Ed, are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?" Okay, now it was threatening, and Ed obviously knew that, because he gave up.

"Go on. Pull the damn thing out. Go on! Christ." Shane pulled the log out and stamped on the end, he then turned to Carol and Sophia

"Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?"

"Fine. We're just fine." Carol insisted, Shane shrugged

"Okay"

"I'm sorry about the fire." Carol apologised, I think my face took on a confused expression, why was a nice lady like Carol saying sorry about what her mean husband did? Shane shook his head

"No no no. No apology needed. Y'all have a good night, okay? Thank you. I appreciate the cooperation." That cemented my idea that Shane was a good guy that I could trust. He sat back down and the old man, Dale, spoke up.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." Oops. I had been enjoying myself so much that I had forgotten about the guy on the roof, he was a bit of an idiot, but I agreed with Dakota, nobody deserves to be left alone. T-Dog sighed

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me."

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Mr Grimes argued,

"Guys, it's not a competition." Glenn stepped in "I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." T-Dog still insisted

"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him."

"We could lie." Amy suggested, Andrea shook her head

"Or we could tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed, your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."

"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise, we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt." I tuned out the conversation when I saw the door of the tent my sister was in begin to unzip, looked like it wasn't just tomorrow they would have their hands full.

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T-Dog said, I tugged on Mr Grimes' shirt to get his attention but he just shrugged me off

"We were all scared. We all ran." Andrea said comfortingly, I tugged on Mr Grimes' shirt again, and he turned to me

"Yes Maddison?"

"Mr Grimes-"

"Call me Rick" He stopped me, I nodded

"Okay Rick, I think my sister just-" I was interrupted by someone tackling T-Dog, shouting

"You bastard! Whatchu think you were doin' knockin' me out like tha'!" It took Shane and Rick to restrain her, whilst everyone looked in shock, they hadn't seen what she was like yet, this was why I wanted to tell them before she woke up.

"Hey! Why don't you stop struggling,we don't wanna have to hurt you" Shane said, she threw her head back, colliding with his face, and elbowed Rick in the stomach, they let go and she tried to reach for T-Dog again, Shane collected his thoughts and brought her down to the ground

"I'll cut your damn balls off, then shove 'em so far up ya damn ass you'll have somethin' to choke on!" I broke free of Amy's grip and ran to her

"Dakota! Stop it, he kept you safe!" I said, she stopped hitting Shane and looked at me, our eyes met and she got what I was trying to say. Stop being a baby. He let her up and she sat down with me, T-Dog stayed standing for a while before he took a seat as far away as possible.

"I-I'm sorry, okay?" She said, she had landed a few blows before Shane and Mr Grim- 'Rick! He said Rick!' I berated myself- Rick had pulled her off, T-Dog's lip was bleeding and he had long scratches on his face. She only stayed to apologise before heading back to the tent

"Who the hell was that?" Shane asked, wide eyed

"My big sister" I said cheerfully, before skipping off to go to bed.

**-THEWALKINGDEADTHEWALKINGDEADTHEWALKINGDEADTHEWALKINGDEAD-**

**Dakota POV**

I didn't sleep the rest of the night, I heard Maddi's soft sighs and the occasional snore as she slept, I just kept thinking to how we left Dixon on the roof, and that he was alone. He had mentioned having a lil' brother, but so far I hadn't seen anyone who looked like him. That was probably cause I was knocked out by some DICKHEAD, but I s'pose I could forgive him for that.

"Mornin'" A man said, tilting his head towards me, most of them didn't look at me, obviously judging me by my little stunt last night. I saw Rick and jogged over

"Mornin' Officer Friendly" I said jokingly, he smiled a bit, but he was still pissed at me trying to kill T-Dog, I would have to explain that I didn't try to kill him... just cause a bit of damage. A woman stood at a washing line with a shaven head (well, it stopped walkers grabbing your hair, that had happened once to me, back in Nashville).

"Morning." She greeted us

"Morning."

"Mornin'" She handed Rick a pile of clothes

"They're still a little damp. The sun'll have 'em dry in no time." She informed him, he looked surprised

"You washed my clothes? Well, best we could. Scrubbing on a washboard ain't half as good as my old maytag back home."

"That's very kind, thank you." He walked off and I went to follow when the woman grabbed my arm

"What're you doin'" I asked, she let go and I turned to face her

"Just thought I'd introduce myself, I'm Carol, I met your sister yesterday, I'm hoping she could be friends with my little girl" Oh, so she had a daughter, I relaxed and smiled

"Dakota, and am pretty sure they'll get along jus' fine"

"She's awfully young to be your sister, you look about 20" She pointed out, hmm, observant

"Yeah, am 25, mah momma waited a while for a few of us"

"Oh, were there more of you?"

"Oh yeah! I had mah 30 year old brother, mah 15 year old, 12 year old and then Maddi, mah only sister" Carol was easy to get along with

"And what happened to them?" I opened my mouth to say when I felt a pain in my chest, like someone had pierced my heart, it clouded my mind and tinged my sights with a deep scarlet, my face settled into a stony expression

"None of your damn business!" I snapped, she reeled back, startled, and I walked off.

I looked for Rick for what seemed like hours before I found him, I just got to him when a woman began to scream, it was further away, but the next scream that came was one I recognised, Maddi.

"Maddi!" I yelled, began to run in the direction of the yelling, Lori, Rick's wife, followed me to find her son, children began to call for their parents and I finally saw Maddi fly from the trees into my arms.

"Nothing bit you? Nothing scratched you?" Lori asked her son, Maddi was wearing shorts and a shirt, and from what I could see there were no bites or scratches

"No, I'm okay." Carl insisted,

"Maddison, go up to the camp" I ordered, before taking out my knife and going to find where the men had went. I found them surrounding the body of a walker, it's head had been ripped off. There was a deer too, with a huge gap in its neck and two arrows sticking out its side. I wondered who had shot it, because as far as I could tell nobody round here had anything with arrows cept me, and I hadn't.

"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain" Shane said, I stood behind the bushes and watched

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." Someone else said, branches snapped and footsteps could be heard from the tree's ahead, they all steadied their weapon and I gripped my knife tighter, no need though, because it was a guy, he held a crossbow, so I could safely assume he had fired the arrows.

"Son of a bitch. That's mah deer! Look at it, all gnawed on by this" He began to kick the walker's body "filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"

"Calm down, son. That's not helping." An old man attempted to calm him down, much to no avail, he just stepped over and got in the old guy's face

"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond?' I've been tracking this deer for miles, gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He pulled the arrows outta the deer and used one to show the huge gouge in the deer

"I would not risk that." Shane said cautiously, the man sighed

"That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so. That'll have to do." He lifted a line on his shoulder, it was full of dead squirrels, I had to admit, that was pretty impressing. Suddenly, the walkers head came to life and began to gnash its jaws menacingly, Amy retched

"Oh God" She groaned, and Andrea pulled her away, the man aimed the crossbow

"Come on, people, what the hell?" He shot a bolt into the walkers head "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" With that he walked off, and I knew, from his stubbornness to the way he regarded his fellow campers, I knew exactly who he was.

Merle's brother had finally arrived.

**Maddi POV**

I was scared, we had all been playing, me, Carl, Sophia and the two other kids, when that walker just came outta nowhere. Usually I could kill a walker if I had to, but Amy had shooed me way to camp. Carol had told me it would be okay, and I believed her, so we sat and waited until someone came into the clearing, but I didn't know him. He held a crossbow, and wore a shirt with the sleeves torn off.

"Oh god" Carol whispered "Daryl's back" I shrank back, worried about how he would react to learning his brother wasn't here. He seemed oblivious at the moment

"Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up." The rest of the group, including my sister, trailed after him, looking like they would rather eat a walker than tell Daryl about Merle.

"Daryl, just slow up a bit, I need to talk to you." Shane said, coming up, Daryl stopped

"About what?"

"About Merle. There was a, there was a problem in Atlanta." Daryl stopped for a moment

"He dead?"

"We're not sure" Shane admitted, Daryl didn't seem happy with this

"He either is or he ain't!" Sensing that Daryl was about to do something stupid, Rick stepped up

"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it."

"Who are you?"

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes" He said sarcastically "you got something you want to tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." I looked at Dakota and shot her a warning glance, since she seemed about ready to jump in, Daryl turned around and wiped his eyes

"Hold on." He said "Let me process this." He turned his finger by his head then spun to look at Rick

"You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, AND YOU LEFT HIM THERE?!" He roared, Dakota seemed to have had enough, and she walked forward

"Hey! There ain't no need to start causin' such a god damn fuss!" He stepped towards her, but she didn't move away, if anything it just annoyed her

"Who the hell are you lady?" He growled, she balled her hands into fists

"None of your god damn business who I am, maybe I'll tell you when you stop being such an immature jackass!" She retorted

"Oh god, she's gonna die" Glenn whispered, I shook my head at him

"We had guys like this in our street, she's used to em'" I stated confidently, and I was right, cause he backed down a bit

"Now, yur brother didn' deserve to be left up there, I know that, some dumbass had to knock me out when I tried to go back and help him, but that don' give you no reason to start shoutin' and bawlin' like a god damn banshee!" They stood still for a moment, then Daryl pushed her outta the way and threw his line of squirrels before launching himself at Rick, Dakota backed up, not wanting to get involved as Shane shoved Daryl out of the way.

"Watch the knife!" T-Dog shouted, Shane decided to come to Rick's rescue and grab Daryl, pulling his down.

"Okay. Okay" He said, Daryl struggled against him

"You'd best let me go!"

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane told him, Daryl's struggles continued, but were a bit weaker

"Choke hold's illegal." He grunted, Shane looked like he was trying not to laugh

"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day." Rick knelt down and looked at Daryl

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that? Do you think we can manage that?" He asked, Daryl stopped moving and looked at him in defeat

"Yeah."

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."

"Yeah, ya can say that more than once, he ain't gon' listen to ya" Dakota called out, Daryl's head turned and he glared at her, if looks could kill, my big sister would be lying on the ground dead.

"It's not Rick's fault." T-Dog said "I had the key, I dropped it." Daryl looked at him incredously

"You couldn't pick it up?" Dakota smirked then, that was another thing about my sister, she was nice to me, but seemed to take pleasure in taunting others and found it funny when people got insulted.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain." The black man admitted

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." Daryl spat

"Well, maybe this will, look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him, with a padlock.

"It's gotta count for something" Rick pressed, Daryl looked at them then swung his arm

"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so's I can go get him."

"I'll show ya" Dakota stepped in, arms crossed, he looked at her

"I'm going back too" Rick said. And everyone went quiet.

**-THEWALKINGDEADTHEWALKINGDEADTHEWALKINGDEADTHEWALKINGDEAD-**

**Dakota's POV**

"So that's it, huh? You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else?" I watched as Shane and Rick argued over Rick going back to Atlanta for Merle, it was quite amusing to see the two best friends argue over some dickhead that neither actually liked.

"I'm not saying to hell with anybody Not you, Shane; Lori least of all."

"Tell her that"

"She knows"

"Well, look, I I don't, okay, Rick? So could you just, could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?"

"Hey, choose your words more carefully" Daryl threatened, pointing the knife, Shane looked over to the crossbow-wielding man

"No, I did. Douchebag's what I meant." I laughed

"Find somethin' funny?" Daryl asked, all riled up again, I shrugged

"Yeah. You gotta admit, the guys an asshole" He said nothing, since he couldn't actually argue with me over that, seeing as his brother was a lot more than an asshole. I tuned back into Rick and Shane Fight FM.

"We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."

"So you, Daryl and the girl, that's your big plan?" Rick looked at Glenn, who let out a pitiful sound

"Oh, come on!"

"You know the way, you've been there before in and out, no problem, you said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along, I know she would too." She meaning Lori of course

"That's just great, now you're gonna risk four people, huh?" Shane asked

"Five" T-Dog came over and Daryl huffed _'He's like a goddamn child'_ I thought,

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" He snarled

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?"

"Why you?"

"You wouldn't even begin to understand, you don't speak my language."

"That's five" Rick reasoned, Shane still wasn't happy though

"It's not just five, you're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick, come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp, they're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got, we need 'em here, we need 'em to protect camp.

"It seems to me what you really need most here, are more guns" The guns! I had forgotten that when I first met the recently awoken officer, he had a whole bag of guns with him

"Right, the guns." Glenn seemed to have remembered too

"Wait, what guns?"

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left, I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up"

"Ammo?"

"700 rounds, assorted"

"You went through hell to find us" Lori protested "You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?"

"Dad, I don't want you to go" Carl piped up

"I don' want Dakota to go either, but she's still goin'" Maddi snapped at him, Carl cast her a dirty look and Lori carried on

"To hell with the guns, Shane is right, Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in. Tell me, make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy" I noticed Lori shove her head towards Carl, as if to say 'WE have a little boy' "Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died, it's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta, they'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him."

"What's stopping you?"

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped, he's got the other one, our plan was to connect when they got closer." I got bored with listening in, and walked off to the van, I hoisted myself in, just as Maddi came running over

"Wait! I wanna come with you!" I sighed and placed my hands on her shoulders

"Maddi, this is dangerous, and I don' want you gettin' hurt, can ya please stay stay with Carol' n' Sophia til I get back?" Her head dropped and and she promised in a tiny voice, I felt guilty for making her stay but it was needed. She shuffled off like a petulant child 'not that far off' I thought bitterly, I forgot she was only ten sometimes, my eyes searched the crowd for Rick and I found him with Dale and Jim. I waited for another four minutes before a loud honk behind me caused me to curse loudly, Daryl rolled his eyes at me before shouting at Rick

"Come on, let's go!" I caught a the last few lines of their conversation.

"Well five people, five rounds."

"What are the odds, huh? Well, let's just hope five is your lucky number, okay?

"Thank you."

"Comon ya'll, lets get movin'!" I shouted, banging on the side of the van before disappearing inside, Rick soon got in and we began moving, off to save some guy only one of us actually liked.

**Maddi POV**

I didn't stop sniffling about Dakota leaving me behind until Shane and Carl asked if I wanted to come frog catching I nodded eagerly, happy to have something to do other than wait. All the women of the camp were sitting chatting whilst they washed clothes, Carl sighed in disappointment

"I'm not getting anything"

"Me either" I said, Shane laughed

"Yeah, being all wily, staying submerged, little suckers, they know something's up, that's what's going on. Just going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, all right, guys, look. You two are the keys in all this, okay? All I'm gonna do is go after one of them, all right, scare the rest of them off. They're all gonna scatter, I'm gonna drive 'em your way."

"All right" We said

"What you need to do is you need to round up every bad boy you see, all right? Are you with me?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah!"

"Hells yeah" Shane laughed again "Give me your mean face" I pulled a mean face and growled, Carl was a little less convincing

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah!"

"Are you ready?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Here we go, kids, here we go. All right, little man, they're coming your way, they're coming your way. Go on, get 'em, get 'em. They're coming your way Maddi, come on. Catch them frogs, catch them frogs" I held the net out and tried to scoop some in, but I couldn't see anything properly "They're coming, kids! Get 'em! Get that net in there and get 'em! What have you got, kids? What do you got? What do you got?" Shane asked

"Dirt" Carl said grumpily, I repeated this dully, looking around I saw the faint splash of a frog in the water, it gave me an idea

_2 Years Before_

_"Dakota, we ain't gonna catch anythin', its a tiny lil' pond and we don' have rods or nets" She had just laughed and walked up to her ankles into the water, a slice of bread in her hand_

_"What're ya doin'?" I had asked, she had just laughed again and tore off a tiny piece of bread, then scooped mud from the bottom, she let it settle over her hands, but left the tiny piece of bread sit on the top, she had then lowered her hands into the water_

_"Ya see, frogs and smaller fish ain't that smart, they'll see the bread, know its food, and if yur quick enough ya have a lil' frog in yur hands" To show she was right, she nodded her head to a frog swimming towards the bread, it nipped it between its mouth, and she closed her hands over with a quick snap, I had stared in awe, being 8 an all._

_"Wow! Can you show me that?" I came in after her and we spent the rest of the evening catching frogs and plopping them in the bucket afterwards._

I fished around in my pocket for something to bait them, and came up with an extremely bruised peach 'It'll have ta do' I thought, tearing it with my fingers

"What're you doing Maddi?" Carl asked me

"Am gon' try to catch frogs the way Dakota taught me"

"Can I try" I told him yes and handed him three peach pieces, Shane stood on the rocks and watched us with a small smile

"I got one!" Carl said excitedly. I giggled with him, glad I had a moment to be a child.

**Dakota POV**

We got through the fence after we parked the car, it clattered noisily and I winced.

"Merle first or guns?"

"Merle! We ain't even havin' this conversation!" Daryl argued

"We are" Rick retorted then he said to Glenn "You know the geography, it's your call." The chink squirmed uncomfortably

"Merle's closest, the guns would mean doubling back. Merle first"

"Should be the god damn livin' thing anyway" I pointed out, pulling my bow off my back and notching an arrow, Glenn whistled

"I thought you said you weren't Lara Croft?" I scoffed and we began our journey. We eventually reached the department store, it seemed quite empty compared to when the walkers had bombarded it last time I had been here, Daryl kept ahead, and we noticed a female walker shambling around, he snuck around the appeared in front of it

"Damn" He said "Ugly skank" With those final words he landed an arrow in it's forehead, the walker fell to the ground and he yanked his arrow out with a soft squelch. I had to admit, the crossbow was pretty awesome.

"Yeah yeah, comon Pocahontas, let's go get tha' dickhead on the roof" I smirked, brushing past him and going upstairs, the four men followed and T-Dog broke the padlock chain

"Merle!" Daryl shouted, we all followed, Merle's name echoing through the air, the redneck charged down to where Merle was handcuffed and the way he looked... in that moment he thought his brother was gone, I saw raw emotion in his eyes, hurt, anger.

"NO! No!" He yelled, I came down after him and saw just why he was so upset, because Merle wasn't there, but the handcuffs hadn't been cut, no, there was a part of Merle left though.

"Oh god..." I moaned to myself, pushing my hair out my eyes. I turned away, not wanting to look at it.

Not wanting to look at Merle's dismembered hand.


	4. Esto Significa I Have No Idea

**Hi again guys! I have my 4th chapter up and that is my record at the moment. Anybody watched Season 5 Episode 1 yet? AHHHH! I was so excited but don't worry, I won't spoil it for people... anyhow on with the show! Errr fanfiction!**

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Everything seemed to go quiet for a short while, that is until Daryl swung the crossbow at T-Dog, me, being the dumb ass I am, stepped in front of T-Dog and stood with my head held high, staring defiantly at the upset and broken Dixon.

"Move outta mah way lady!" He snarled, trying his best to push me out the way without really harming me, I realized then that if I stood long enough, he might eventually give up, Daryl didn't strike me as the type to hit a woman. So I stood my ground, I figured I was pretty safe anyway, seeing as Rick had his Colt at the Georgia Boy's head

"I won't hesitate, I don't care if every walker in the city hears it." He lowered the crossbow and I breathed a sigh of relief, we had avoided what could have been a very messy ordeal, Daryl swallowed then looked at T-Dog

"You got a do- rag or something?" The black man passed him one and Daryl strode down and knelt to pick up his brother's hand, I retched and had to look away.

"I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs, ain't that a bitch." He stuffed the hand into Glenn's backpack and we followed a blood trail

"He must have used a tourniquet maybe his belt, be much more blood if he didn't" This didn't make me feel any less horrified, the guy had cut off his hand! The trail led us into a separate room, where two walkers lay dead on the floor.

"Merle? You in here?" Daryl called out

"Jesus" Even I had to admit it was a pretty impressive feat, to kill two walkers without a hand

"Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches one-handed" Daryl sounded almost proud of his big brother "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother, feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails." He loaded his crossbow back up, I took a moment to admire the way his arm muscles flexed as he pulled the string back. Only natural for human women who hadn't been in a relationship in a while after all.

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is" Rick reasoned,

"Merle!"

"We're not alone here, remember?"

"Screw that, he could be bleeding out, you said so yourself" Daryl walked over to a bench where burnt flakes scattered the top, T-Dog picked up a large piece with something dark dried on it, and I had to force bile back down my throat when the thought of what it was crossed my mind

"What's this burned stuff?" He asked, I gave a weak chuckle

"Yer holdin' skin" He dropped it and jumped about a metre back

"He cauterised the stump" Rick observed, horror written across his features, Daryl seemed nonplussed, just looked a lil' closer at the flakes

"Told you he was tough, nobody can kill Merle but Merle" I was beginning to think that myself, but couldn't resist taunting the younger Dixon

"I dunno, he doesn't seem to tough to me" I said, Daryl glared at me

"Could you cut ya own hand off then cauterise the stamp?" He asked, I shrugged

"Never been stupid enough to try, but I meant that if he was tough, he would have waited instead of being a complete dickhead and running off!" I snapped, stepping closer until our chests were touching, we stared each other down until Rick put his hand on my shoulder and dragged me backwards

"Don't take that on faith, he's lost a lot of blood." He told Daryl, who sent one last look at me before venturing on, Rick leaned into my ear

"Daryl's a bit unpredictable at the moment, so I would recommend that you stop taunting him about his brother" I ignored his warnings and shrugged his hands off my shoulders, to where Daryl stood at a window

"Yeah? Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap" He said, I looked and sure enough, blood was outside the window, meaning he had gone outside.

"He left the building? Why the hell would he do that?"

Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do, survivin'" Daryl replied

"You call that surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?"

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks" He shot back, T-Dog and Glenn dropped their heads in shame and wouldn't look at him, I agreed with Daryl on this one, my head still hurt like hell from the gun hitting it. "You couldn't kill him, ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard"

"What about 1,000 dead dumb bastards? Different story?"

"Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want, I'm gonna go get him." He made for the window and Rick pushed him back, I decided to step in front of the window to block him

"Daryl, wait"

"Get your hands off me! You can't stop me!" Daryl yelled, giving both me and Rick the evil eyes

"I don't blame you, he's family, I get that, I went through hell to find mine, I know exactly how you feel. He can't get far with that injury, we could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head." Rick reasoned with Daryl best he could, Daryl looked around, and his eyes fell on my still blocking the window, I nodded and he looked back to Rick

"I could do that"

"Well, I ain't goin' nowhere until we get them guns" I put in

"I was thinkin' the same thing, I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?" So we decided to start planning how to get the bag.

"You're not doing this alone" Rick insisted, I looked at him before going back to sharpening the arrow heads for my bow.

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much" Daryl admitted, I placed the arrows back within my quiver and jumped off the table I had sat on

"We got a better plan?" I asked, they stayed silent.

"It's a good idea, okay, if you just hear me out, if we go out there in a group, we're slow, drawing attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast, look, that's the tank, five blocks from where we are now. That's the bag of guns, here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl, Dakota and I will go" I spoke up, and so did Daryl

"Why me?" We asked at the same time, I traded a look with him and gave a small smile.

"Your crossbow and bow are quieter than his gun" Glenn answered, he continued using the map as a battle plan "While Daryl and Dakota wait here in the alley, I run up the street, grab the bag"

"You got us elsewhere?" Rick asked, Glenn nodded

"You and t-dog, right, you'll be in this alley here"

"Two blocks away? Why?"

"I may not be able to come back the same way, walkers might cut me off. If that happens, I won't go back to those two, I'll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are. Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me, afterwards, we'll all meet back here" So far, so good, I had to admit it was a pretty good plan.

"Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this?" Daryl asked

"Delivered pizzas, why?" Daryl didn't answer, and we left to get to the alley

It didn't take long to make it there, and we hid behind some bins to start with.

"You got some balls for a chinaman" Daryl observed, holding his crossbow and standing up, Glenn stayed crouched for now

"I'm Korean" He said

"Whatever" Daryl replied, I stifled a snort and pushed Glenn out to grab the bag. I withdrew my bow and notched an arrow just in case, and we crouched in silence for a while

"How's you end up with the cop?" Daryl grunted, I didn't answer for a while. I was actually a bit startled that he was talking to me in a, okay so I wouldn't call it civil, manner.

"What? Oh, uhh, fell down a hill and cracked mah head against a tree, he kinda rescued me and mah sister" He nodded and we were quiet once more, nothing really happened until he suddenly pushed me further behind the bins

"What're you-" He put a finger to his lips and jerked his head behind him, I strained to listen but I could hear soft footsteps. Someone had planned to sneak up on us, I shrank further in so I could surprise them if needed and Daryl jumped out, crossbow aimed. Whoever it was began talking

"Whoa, don't shoot me! What do you want?" He pleaded

"I'm looking for mah brother, he's hurt real bad., you seen him?" For a tough guy, Daryl cared a lot for his brother, and I respected that, but this guy apparently didn't.

"Ayudame!" He yelled, I got ready to fire at the guy if he continued to yell

"Shut up! You're gonna bring the geeks down on us" Daryl hissed, I shuffled a bit but whoever it was didn't notice, they were too busy trying to not to get shot by Daryl's crossbow.

"Answer me" He demanded, the guy just continued yelling in some foreign language, spanish I think.

"Ayudame! Ayudame! Ayudame!"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up" Daryl was beginning to repeat his words, bringing the guy down, I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Glenn's footsteps, but my heart sank when I heard others behind him, followed by accented voices

"That's it, that's the bag, Vato" I stayed put, waiting until they got a lil' closer, but there was the sound of a scuffle and I heard Glenn, I leapt from my place and saw two men grabbing Glenn

"Take it! Take it! Get off me! Get off me! Daryl! Daryl!" Glenn yelled, panicking, Daryl fired an arrow at one guy and it shot straight into his ass, I aimed higher though, and shot the other one in the shoulder, they both screamed but held Glenn as tight as before, shoving him in a car, Daryl leapt up and pounded against the fence, pulling it in when the geeks began to swarm

"Come back here, you sumbitches!" Luckily for us Rick and T-Dog showed up around then, and Rick managed to stop Daryl from murdering the guy, who in fact was just a kid.

"Daryl, hold it together!" I said, grabbing onto his arms and attempting to help Rick hold him

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up in your throat! Let me go!"

"Daryl, you need to calm down, this ain't gon' solve nothin'" I tried again, he continued to try and get the kid, who was being held captive by T-Dog.

"They took Glenn, that little bastard and his little bastard homie friends! I'm gonna stomp your ass!"

"Hate to alarm ya'll, but we're cut off!" I stood close to the fence, leaning back to avoid the walker's rotting hands and gnashing jaws

"Get to the lab! Go!" Rick ordered, the kid began to shout in spanish, so T-Dog slapped a hand over his mouth and hauled him along. But Glenn's cries were still in my mind the whole way.

I was beginning to get a little more than pissed of with the lil' bastard, we were questioning, but he wasn't telling us shit

"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went" Rick and T-Dog wanted to attempt to convince him, whilst I would've preferred a more... violent way of getting us to tell him"

"I ain't telling you nothing" The lil' bastard said,

"Might if I hammer a nail or two in ya hands" I muttered, he looked at me fearfully and then turned to Rick

"You ain't gonna let her do that, are you?" Rick ignored the kid and glanced in Daryl's direction

"What the hell happened back there?" He asked

"I told you, this little turd and his douche bag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me" Daryl said, the kid snorted

"You're the one who jumped me, puto, screaming about trying to find his brother like it's my damn fault."

"How do we know it ain't?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, Daryl pointed at me

"See? They took Glenn, could have taken Merle too"

"Merle? What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle" I jumped up at the same time Daryl charged at the kid, Rick held him back and he just managed to kick the chair slightly, T-Dog put an am around my stomach to stop me from going any further.

"Damn it, Daryl, back off" Rick said, sounding annoyed,

"Better watch that tongue of yurs spaniard, or you'll find it gone" I snarled from where I was, T-Dog used his arm to push me back and I sat back down, Daryl fished around in Glenn's bag until he found the do- rag with his brother's hand in, my guts did somersaults as he unwrapped the hand and tossed in the kid's lap

"Want to see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?" The boy realised what it was and jumped off the seat, Daryl came after him and pinned him down "Start with the feet this time!"

"Tha's just mean" Officer Friendly pulled Daryl away once again and got in the boy's face

"The men you were with took our friend, all we want to do is talk to them, see if we can work something out" Rick reasoned, the kid thought for a moment

"I'd say yes if I were you" I sang, making a show of picking dirt from my nails with my knife, T-Dog shot me an amused look as the kid nodded quickly

"You sure you're up for this?"

"Yeah"

"Okay" Rick pulled him up and held him by the back of his shirt, I decided I didn't want near the kid and hung back, I chose to pull out my gun instead of my bow.

"The hell was that back there?" My heart jumped into my throat for a moment when I felt Daryl come up behind me, I recovered from my near heart attack and glared up at him, I was tall for a woman but he still stood higher than me

"Ya need to stop doin' that" I informed him, walking off, he caught up quickly and asked me again "Hell was what?"

"Ya went to hit that lil' homie when he started spoutin' off crap, you don' even know Merle"

"One, it ain't none our yur business what I do, and two, Merle weren't so bad" And it was left at that.

"One wrong move, you get an arrow in the ass, just so you know" Daryl warned him, the kid sneered at him in what he must have thought was a menacing manner

"G's gonna take that arrow out of my ass and shove it up yours, just so you know"

"G?"

"Guillermo, he's the man here"

"Okay then, let's go see Guillermo" Rick said, we followed the kid, with our weapons pointed at him, he took us to a large building, up to the front doors, they opened and a whole group of spanish men streamed out, one stood in front of the others.

"You okay, little man?" He asked,

"They're gonna cut off my feet, carnal" He told him, I rolled my eyes, pussy.

"Cops do that?"

"Not him, this redneck puto here. He cut off some dude's hand, man, he showed it to me and that girl there, she's gonna put nails in my hands and cut off my tongue man!" I moved forward to fulfill my promise on cutting that tongue off, so Rick threw his arm out

"Shut up" Daryl told him

"Hey, that's that Vato right there, homes, he shot me in the ass with an arrow, and that redneck puta shot Jorge in the shoulder" The bald guy from the alley came outta the crowd.

"What's up, homes, huh? Chill, ese, chill, chill"

"This true? He wants Miguelito's feet? And she wants to cut his tongue out and put nails in his hands? That's pretty sick, man" I wiped the back of my neck uneasily as Rick gave both me and Daryl hard glares.

"We were hoping more for a calm discussion" He said calmly, Guillermo scoffed lightly

"That hillbilly jumps Felipe's little cousin, beats on him, threatens to cut off his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass, that mujerzuela gets Jorge in the shoulder and threatens to take Miguel's tongue and you want a calm discussion? You fascinate me"

"Heat of the moment" Rick insisted "Mistakes were made on both sides"

"Who're these two to you anyway? You don't look related" G pointed out

"They're in our group, more or less, I'm sure you have a few like them."

"You got my brother in there?" Daryl interrupted, G gave him a sardonic smile

"Sorry, we're fresh out of white boys, but I've got Asian, you interested?" I looked up and Glenn stood on top of the building, two men holding him, I tightened my grip on my bow, ready to pull the string back and loose an arrow if necessary.

"I have one of yours, you have one of mine, sounds like an even trade" Rick said, G shook his head, as if he were almost amused at Rick's logic

"Don't sound even to me" He said,

"G" Miguel implored "Come on, man"

"My people got attacked" Guillermo continued as if he had never heard the boy "Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where's my bag of guns?"

"Guns?"

"The bag Miguel saw in the street. The bag Felipe and Jorge were going back to get"

"That bag of guns. You're mistaken"

"I don't think so" Guillermo argued, Rick shook his head

"About it being yours, it's my bag of guns. The bag was in the street, anybody could come around and say it was theirs. I'm supposed to take your word? What's to stop my people from unloading on you right here and now and I take what's mine?" Guillermo asked, his tone contemptuous and jeering.

"You could do that" Guillermo looked to the side and saw T-Dog, with a gun aimed at his head "Or not"

"Oye. I see two options, you come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks, or you come back locked and loaded, we'll see which side spills more blood."

We headed back and Rick began to look through the bag, whilst the rest of us looked on, it was so silent for a while that I jumped when Daryl spoke up,

"Them guns are worth more than gold, gold won't protect your family or put food on the table, you're gonna give that up for that kid?"

"If I knew we'd get Glenn back, I might agree" Rick conceded grudgingly, I ambled over to them and picked up one of the shotguns in the bag

"Personally, I don' think that he's gon' Glenn over, or follow through his end of the deal"

"You calling g a liar?" Miguel asked hotly, Daryl marched over to him

"Are you a part of this? You want to hold onto your teeth?" He slapped his head and Miguel shrank back

"Question is, do you trust that man's word?"

"No, question is what are you willing to bet on it? Could be more than them guns. Could be your life, Glenn worth that to you?

"What life I have I owe to him, what life WE have we owe to him" He looked pointedly at me, and I ducked my head a little "We were nobody to Glenn, just some idiots stuck in a tank, he could have walked away, but he didn't. Neither will we."

"Yeah, but question is, will we be able to walk away from this alive ain't it? Ya'll don't seem to realise that we could get killed anyway, an handin' them guns over means no protection" I indicated, waving my hand over the guns.

"I didn't say I was handing them over, did I?" He asked, looking at all three of us "There's nothing keeping you three here, you should get out, head back to camp" I shook my head and gave him an incredulous look

"And tell your family what? We left ya out here on yur own! Not likely"

"Come on, this is nuts, just do like G says" I lunged at the kid suddenly, and used the butt of my gun to strike his head, he slumped to the ground yelping and Rick pulled me back

"Hey hey hey! We do not attack the living unless we have to!" I holstered the gun

"It got him to shut up didn't it?" I snapped back, he nodded, though I knew we would talk about this later, with Miguel safely secured and a half empty bag of guns over Rick's shoulder, we led ourselves to the warehouse.

"I see my guns but they're not all in the bag" G noticed once we stalked in. we all had a gun from the bag locked and loaded, he was also pissed that we hadn't listened to him.

"That's because they're not yours, I thought I mentioned that" Rick's tone was casual, but held a veil of threats underneath.

"Let's just shoot these fools right now, ese"

"All right? Unload on their asses, ese"

"I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation" Guillermo said,

"No, I'm pretty clear. You have your man, I want mine" Guillermo sneered at him and began to taunt us.

"I'm gonna chop up your boy. I'm gonna feed him to my dogs. They're the evilest, nastiest man-eating bitches you ever saw, I picked them up from Satan at a yard sale, I told you how it has to be. Are you woefully deaf?"

"No, my hearing's fine. You said come locked and loaded, okay then, we're here" G didn't take this to well, and his men began to ready their guns, I aimed mine directly at the man I had shot in the alley, Jorge, I was ready to pull the trigger along with everyone else when a voice echoed from the back, and it wasn't a mans voice.

"Felipe! Felipe!"

"Abuela, go back with the others now" Felipe instructed her, she just kept hobbling forward

"Get that old lady out of the line of fire!" Daryl yelled, trying to aim his gun around the old woman

"Abuela, listen to your mijo, okay? This is the not the place for you right now." G's voice had taken on a softer tone, but she continued as if she hadn't heard him

Mr Gilbert is having trouble breathing, he needs his asthma stuff. Carlitos didn't find it, he needs his medicine" Mr Gilbert? Asthma? What the hell was going on in this place? I traded looks with Rick and his expression no doubt matched mine.

"Felipe, go take care of it, okay? And take your grandmother with you" G ordered

"Abuela! Ven conmigo por favor"

"Who are those people?"

"Por favor, ven conmigo" The old woman came to us and looked at Rick

"Don't you take him" She said fiercely, Rick blinked in confusion

"Ma'am?"

Felipe's a good boy, he have his trouble but he pull himself together we need him here" I realised what was going on, she didn't even know what had happened, and she thought Rick was a cop coming to arrest her grandson, an idea came to my head

"Ma'am?" I asked placing the gun behind me "We ain't here to arrest yur grandson"

"Then what do you want him for?" I struggled for an excuse

"He's helping us find a missing person" Rick put in helpfully, I mouthed a silent thanks "fella named Glenn" She smiled at us

"The Asian boy? He's with Mr Gilbert, come, come, I show you. He needs his medicine" She beckoned us through the group and G stepped aside reluctantly

"Let 'em pass"

"Abuela, por favor"

"Take us to him please Ma'am" I asked her, she nodded and we made our way through the men who had come so close to killing us before, I threw a few smirks their way, mockingly, and continued after the feeble elder, she led us to a room filled with old people, and where Glenn stood with an old black man whose breath was coming out in short gasps

"All right, all right. Nice and easy. Just breathe, just breathe, just let it out, just breathe, just relax" The erratic breathing calmed down and I walked to Glenn

"What the- care to explain this?"

"An asthma attack, couldn't get his breath all of a sudden" He seemed oblivious to the fact that we had just nearly started a massacre between us and the gang.

"I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man" Rick sighed in relief, I looked over to where two tiny dogs sat on cushions and fought the erge to burst out laughing

"Could I have a word with you?" Rick led the G away from us and from then on I couldn't hear the conversation, I walked further off and stood next to Daryl and T-Dog

"Nice to see that some people have kept a bit of their humanity" I said, they looked at me

"This shit's brought out the best in some people" T-Dog replied, I nodded and watched as a heavyset man with a goatee, balding head and arms sleeve tattoo's helped an old man into his chair

"Yeah, I guess it does." I muttered, this time though, it was mostly to myself.

"Admit it, you only came back to Atlanta for the hat" We'd left the Vatos an hour earlier, and given them half our weapons, which some of us were less than pleased about.

"Don't tell anybody" Rick said jokingly to Glenn

"You've given away half our guns and ammo" Daryl's voice was sour, and he sounded pissed

"Not nearly half" Rick argued

"For what? Bunch of old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long you think they got?" Daryl asked

"How long do any of us?" Rick pointed out, I opened my mouth to tell them both to shut the hell up when we came to a sudden halt, I looked at the spot where we had parked our van, an empty space with nothing there

"Oh my God, where the hell's our van?"

"We left it right there, who would take it?" I exchanged looks with Daryl

"A very pissed off Dixon" I said, Daryl looked down and then at us

"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp" He said, I sighed and then started moving in the direction we had entered from

"Best start walkin' then" And so we did.

**Maddi POV**

I sat around the campfire, shivering. It was cold and I was hungry, luckily for us Amy and Andrea had caught us some fish using Dale's fishing stuff, the fish had been cooked and everyone but Ed and the people who had went to Atlanta sat around the fire

"Pass the fish, please" I asked Lori, she smiled and handed me some

"Here you go"

"Thank you ma'am" I said, she smiled and then ruffled Carl's hair

"Man o man, that's good" Someone said "I miss this" Morales asked Dale a question

"I've got to ask you, man, it's been driving me crazy"

"What?"

"That watch"

"What's wrong with my watch?"

"I see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass"

"I've wondered this myself" Laughed Jacqui

"I'm missing the point"

"Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end, at least hit a speed bump for a good long while. But there's you every day winding that stupid watch"

"Time it's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least, don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here. I like, I like what, um, a father said to son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me; I give it to you, not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment, now and then and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it" I looked at him blankly

"You are so weird" Amy giggled, and soon I joined it

"It's not me.

It's Faulkner. William Faulkner, maybe my bad paraphrasing" I giggled again and Amy stood up, Andrea looked at her in concern

"Where are you going?"

"I have to pee" Amy explained, her face red "Jeez, you try to be discreet around here" All the kids laughed at that, and we sat there a while longer. I heard the door to the RV open about six minutes later, Amy shouted something about toilet paper, followed by shrill screams, I looked over, my heart pounding, and saw Amy standing there, watching as a walker tore into her arm. The group scattered then, I ran to Carol and Sophia as they backed away from a walker, it was missing its right arm, and I almost reeled back in shock. I shook it off and continued towards the corpse

"Maddi, get to Shane or Lori!" Carol screamed, I ignored her and charged the walker, withdrawing my knife, I knocked in down to reach its head and plunged my blade into its temple.

"Oh my god" I heard Carol whisper, we then ran to the RV where everyone else was and attempted to hold our own against the herd. I just wanted Dakota.

**Dakota POV**

"Ya'll hear that?" I asked them. They nodded and we ran the rest of the way, I went to pull my bow from my back when I remembered I had no arrows left, we had ran into nine walkers on the way here.

"Shit!" I withdrew my gun and we broke through the trees into the camp, and it was bad. People lay bleeding or dead, whilst rotted corpses roamed round attempting to eat the flesh of our friends, families. We filtered out around camp and began to shoot the walkers, I ran out of bullets quite quickly and was about to reload when I noticed one ugly bastard grab Jacqui. Without thinking I ran and tackled it, rolling until it was on top of me, the gun lay about a metre away and my knife was in its strap, but I couldn't move my hands without the damn thing getting me, we struggled a while longer before it was smart enough to snap at one of my hands, I moved it away, only for the walker to lunge, I close my eyes, not wanting to see it bite me. The sound of a shotgun and the feel of the walkers sticky black blood on my chest forced my eyes to snap open and see Daryl standing nearby, shotgun in hand and a strange glint in his eyes, nodding my thanks I grabbed and reloaded my gun quickly to kill some more of them, only they had managed to deal with it. The sound of a woman crying made me turn towards the RV, Andrea sat there, with a bloody and pale Amy below her, the poor girls arm and neck were covered in blood, as were Andrea's hands, I felt a lump rise in my throat at the sight, Amy didn't deserve to die, none of these people deserved to die. Jim came to stand by me and looked at the scene almost blankly before remarking.

"I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes".

**... So Amy's dead, they gained allies with G and everythings gone to hell. I need at least 10 reviews before I update because I have NO REVIEWS ON THIS FICTION! SO REVIEW! MMMKKAY? *Clicks fingers dramatically***


	5. Nowhere Else To Go

**Hey Guys! I decided that waiting for reviews is being really mean towards my other viewers. So I will just try to post as normal. Now, I deleted the sneak peek because all my documents, like on my HP Fanfiction, were COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY WIPED! I kid you not, I nearly cried. So all BLOODY ELEVEN of my pre-wrote chapters were blanked, blasted, turned into oblivion and went poof!**

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**Dakota POV**

Pain. Pain and sorrow. It was the only emotions that seemed to be coming from anyone in the quarry. We had saved some, we had lost most. There wasn't a single person not mourning, even people who hadn't lost anyone. I felt like I had lost my family again, I hadn't really gotten close to anyone in the camp, but they had seemed nice. At this moment I was sat with Rick, his friend Shane and other people, Rick's wife was trying to get Andrea to let us bury Amy's body, it wasn't working. Rick's wife -Lori, was it?- came back over looking defeated

"She still won't move?" Rick asked, Lori looked behind her at the blonde woman sadly

"She won't even talk to us, she's been there all night." She replied

"What do we do?" Rick asked

"Can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it same as the others."

"Preferably before Amy turns." I added, Rick sighed heavily and stood

"I'll tell her how it is." He trudged over and knelt beside Andrea, they exchanged words for a while, before he said something that made her snap, she pulled her gun and pointed it at him

"Shit!" Shane hissed, jumping up, Lori placed a hand on his arm and they exchanged looks, which made me feel awkward, he sat back down as Rick stumbled away from Andrea and came back to us. Unfortunately for us, Daryl had seen Rick come back and decided to pay us a visit, along with Carol and an old man wearing a fisherman's hat and a Hawaiian patterned shirt.

"So whats the plan?" The old man asked

"We're gonna wait, let her say goodbye first Dale." Said Rick, there was no argument in his tone, not that certain people didn't try,

"Y'all can't be serious, let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb." Daryl wasn't too impressed, and for once I was with him, I'd rather not have to take the chance of one of the dead coming back with people around.

"What do you suggest?" Rick asked.

"Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here, hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No." Lori spat, glowering at him darkly "For God's sakes, let her be." Daryl stalked off and got Jim to help him carry the bodies

"When will we take care of Amy though?" I asked, Rick looked down

"When she's ready to let us" The old man, Dale, said firmly

"And when will that be? Look, Dale is it? It only takes a minute, a single second, for Andrea to turn away and stop watching, then she gets bitten, and we have two problems on our hands." My explanation got Dale looking a little less sure of himself, and I couldn't decide whether that was good or bad.

"I'm gonna go see my sister" I decided, they paid no attention, halfway to my sister I heard Daryl call out

"You reap what you sow!"

"You know what? Shut up, man."

"Y'all left mah brother for dead." He paused and then pointed at all the bodies "YOU HAD THIS COMIN'!" And with those final words he stormed away, in my direction

"Jackass!" I snarled, he simply glared and knocked into my shoulder, the man was just so infuriating, so his brother was missing, Merle was likely to still be alive at least, tough bastard. Other people, like Amy, were dead. Maddi, Sophia and Eliza were busy drawing pictures whilst Carl and Eliza's brother sat with Morales' wife. I sat with the girls and watched them draw, suddenly, shouts coming from near the R.V. distracted my attention

"A walker got him. A walker bit Jim!" Jacqui was backing away from Jim, and members of the group descended on him like a pack of wolves

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim was trying to reassure them, I joined the group in trying to get a glimpse of the bite.

"Show it to us!" Daryl demanded, wielding a pickaxe threateningly, Jim backed away from him

"Just show us Jim" I called, standing just behind Shane, Jim, looking panicked, grabbed a shovel and began to brandish it towards anyone who tried to restrain him.

"Easy, Jim." Shane warned, Jim turned to him, not noticing that T-Dog was sneaking up behind him

"Grab him."

"Jim, put it down, put it down." T-Dog decided to make his move, rushing Jim and pulling his arms behind his back, Daryl leapt towards Jim and pulled his shirt up to reveal a fresh, perfectly oval shaped bite, everyone backed up and the two men let go of Jim.

"I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay." Jim was breathing heavily, anyone with any sense knew he wasn't talking to us, but himself.

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"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Of course he did, Daryl had no qualms in disposing both of them, hell, he'd probably do it himself.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane questioned,

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it" Dale stepped forward, looking solemn

"I hate to say it, I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right." Rick stared at him, horrified

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog" He snapped, Dale opened and closed his mouth, trying to find the right words

"I'm not suggesting-"

"He's sick. A sick man, we start down that road, where do we draw the line?"

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Daryl spat, leaning on the pickaxe

"What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure"

"Rick, as inspiringly pathetic your hopefulness is, the C.D.C. is a while away from here, it'd be too late, and we'd feel even worse." That statement got me a few glares, which I returned easily.

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell"

"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?" Rick suggested, Shane snorted and shook his head

"Man, that is a stretch right there."

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot."

"Shelter, protection, okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning, that's 100 miles in the opposite direction, that is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me, if that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there." Now it was Rick's turn to shake his head

"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun, we've all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Daryl rolled his eyes and hauled the pickaxe up

"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do." He started to back up to Jim "Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" He swung the pickaxe at Jim as Rick placed his gun to the back of the rednecks head, I followed after him and stood with Jim

"Hey hey hey! We don't kill the living!" Daryl looked at him incredulously

"That's funny, coming from a man who just put a gun to my head."

"We may disagree on some things, not on this." Daryl moved away and went to walk off to -I presumed stop the dead from rising

"Hey, Dixon!" I called, jogging after him, he didn't stop walking and turned around past the R.V. to impale corpses brains.

"You just gon' ignore me?" I asked him, he stopped stabbing and looked at me

"Gettin' hard to, ya never stop talkin'" The next body he stood next to was hardly there, but I could see he had been overweight, with bruises all over his face.

"The hell is that?"

"Ed Peletier" Daryl replied

"What happened to his face?" He shrugged and lifted the pickaxe again, ready to stop Ed from becoming a walker

"I'll do it." A soft, timid voice said, we turned around to see Carol stood there, her voice shaking as badly as her hands "He's my husband." Daryl wordlessly handed her the weapon, she held it up pathetically, then brought it down, Ed's head exploded outwards with blood and skull, as Carol kept hitting it, Daryl and I were wise to step back, I guess she really needed the chance to hit back (Lori had filled me in on how Ed had hit Carol, and had abused her and Sophia for years). She left choking back sobs and we stood in silence, wondering what to say now, a growl and heavy breathing saved us from talking to each other, I walked around the side of the R.V. and saw Andrea holding Amy, who's eyes were open and looking at her elder sister with a hungry gleam in her eyes. They were bloodshot and a glassy silvery colour, different from all the other walkers I had seen.

"Amy." Andrea's voice was barely above a whisper, as she held her sister "Amy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for not ever being there." Amy's hand was curling a fist in Andrea's hair, attempting to pull her down so she could eat.

"I always thought there'd be more time." Amy was growling now, using Andrea's hair to pull herself up, she opened her mouth and started snapping it noisily, Andrea's hand inched behind her to hold her gun "I'm here now, Amy. I'm here. I love you." The bang that echoed was horrible, and I thought Andrea looked beat. Her face crumpled and she sagged forwards.

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"I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies." Was the first words I heard when the truck reached our 'graveyard' at the top of the hill. Nobody had wanted to stay down there with the dead. I helped Lori, Carol and Miranda shepherd the children up there, all five were silent as they headed up, but only Sophia had lost family. "It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" Shane looked at Daryl and shot back

"At first" Daryl scoffed and replied

"The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, - what the rules are."

"There are no rules." Rick countered

"Well, that's a problem." Lori interrupted, all three men turned to look at the brunette, she stared back coolly "We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead, it's what people do." They shut up and came to help unload the bodies, and elbowed Lori, grinning, she frowned confusedly

"What?"

"I knew I liked you for a reason, got ya husband totally whipped, ain't ya? Good for you, somebody needs to stop these dumbass guys from creating havoc." Lori smiled and for a moment we forgot that our camp had been attacked. We buried several of the bodies and Amy was the last one left. Andrea, being the stubborn woman she was, refused any help.

"I can do it, I can do it." She stumbled when she got into the grave, and tried to lift Amy's body in, Dale leaned down to help and she pushed him away "I can do it! I can do it." After the moments of silence we went our separate ways, some of us headed back down whilst others stayed, the first thing I did was head straight to the R.V. and see how Jim was doing

"Hey Jim, how ya feelin'?" He looked at me and narrowed his eyes as if trying to figure out who I was

"Li-Lily? I that you? Oh god, it hurts Lils, real bad!" And all I could think of is 'Who? What the hell was this crazy ass man talking about?' , but I had to blame it on the infection, I glanced at the bite and noticed it had a faint yellowish tint, accompanied by a faint rotting odour. Carol was sat with him, wiping his forehead with a cold wet cloth,"His fever is worse." She told me, I didn't need to look behind me to know Lori and Rick had just came in with us "You need anything?" Jim swallowed thickly

"Uh Water, could use more water." Carol went to stand up,

"I'll get some" Lori interjected, getting up also, she turned to Carol

"Carol, you help me?" The two women went and it was just me and Rick with Jim, Jim gave a short burst of hacking coughs that made his shoulders shake and his hands tremble. He chuckled weakly and looked at Rick with bleary eyes

"You save a grave for me?"

"Nobody wants that"

"It's not about what you want. That, uh that sound you hear, that's God laughing while you make plans."

"What I want, Jim, if if God allows, is to get you some help." Jim began to groan, followed by more coughing, the occasional blood splattering from his mouth, then his eyes went cloudy and he lost focus

"Watch the mangroves. Their roots will gouge the whole boat. You know that, right? Amy is there swimming." His eyes spun in their sockets wildly, pupils wide "You'll watch the boat, right? You said you would."

"I'll watch the boat. Don't worry." Once reassured Jim calmed down and fell asleep, Rick got up and stood next to where I was leaning

"Still think he can be helped?" I asked

"Yes! He's a sick man, the CDC-"

"Is just gonna be another dead end. Jim won't make it that far Rick, he's dying and its only right to put him out of his misery"

"Are you suggesting that we kill him?! Put a knife through his skull, I can't- I won't!"

"Then I'll do it! He's in pain Rick, and keepin' him alive ain't the best thing, damn it Rick! He could turn and kill us!" He stepped back, head down as he thought about it

"Okay."

"Okay what?"

"You really think he won't make it?" I nodded and he sighed in defeat

"You have a knife?" I withdrew it for him to see.

"Okay, but I can't- I can't watch, I'll just go outside, or somethin'" He exited the R.V. and I was left alone with Jim, he was breathing heavily and his eyes were flickering behind their lids.

"Sorry bout this, but your a danger to me and mah sister." I whispered, placing the knife at his temple, he continued to sleep, and as the knife finally slid home through the bone, and into the brain, he still appeared to be sleeping, except this would last forever.

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"They been gone long?" I asked Lori, it was awkward between me and most of the campers at the moment. Jacqui, who had been close with Jim, wouldn't even look at me. The only people who would talk with me were Daryl, Dale, Rick, Lori, Shane, Miranda and my sister.

"Only a few minutes, they're checking for walkers in the nearby area." And sure enough, Shane came out of the woods with Rick and Dale in tow. 'When did Dale go?' I hadn't even seen him move from his spot.

"I've been, uh I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no- there are no guarantees either way." He scanned the crowd "I'll be the first one to admit that, I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts, I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together, so those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning." The group dispersed and went to pack everything up that they wouldn't be using tonight. Whilst I packed Miranda looked after Maddi with Eliza and Louis, I had found out Eliza and Louis were twins, both 10 years old and got along better with my sister than they did Carl and Sophia.

"Hey, what do ya think we'll find at the CDC?" Miranda looked up at me

"Oh, my husband and I... we're not going with you guys, I have a sister in Birmingham with her three kids, so I want to be with her."

"Birmingham's a while away, ya sure ya wanna go that far with just you and ya kids?"

"We're sure." I shrugged

"Suit yourself." As I walked past other tents I heard muffled cries from inside one of them. Circling around, I peered inside to see Carol, with her head in her hands, sobbing whilst her daughter sat quietly in the corner.

"Carol? You okay?" She looked at me, and nodded unconvincingly, I looked down and saw mens clothes, packed neatly in bags along with other things. Ed's stuff.

"You need some help or somethin'?"

"No, no, I can manage just fine... actually, can- can you look after Sophia, just until I'm finished packing all of Ed's stuff."

"Yeah, sure, I s'pose I can do that" Sophia got up and followed me outside, where we sat in silence for a few moments before she spoke.

"Sorry about my mom, its because my dads died, I-" Her head dropped and she looked down, her face red, I went to put a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped.

"Ya don't have to stop talkin', I'll listen."

"I don't get why she's crying over dad, he was mean to her, and to me." The moment the words came out she clapped her hands over her mouth, as if it were something she wasn't meant to mention. Great, I was dealing with a kid who was probably traumatized for life. Damn you Carol! Sophia wouldn't say another word after that. So I decided to try to start a conversation

"Did ya have any brothers or sisters?" She shook her head, so I continued

"I had three brothers, one older, two younger." She looked at me curiously

"What happened to them?" I dropped my head to watch my thumbs, oh look, they were twiddling! How interesting!

"My youngest, and my oldest brothers, they're dead, but my other brother, he's still alive, I think." She smiled at me, then, in a brave move, leaned her head against my shoulder. Oh dear lord, I didn't sign up for this, Carol, please hurry up!

"Sophia, time to go to bed!" She leapt up and ran inside, calling out a small bye to me, I smiled back, then entered my own tent once she was gone, Maddi noticed and followed like a duckling to its mother. She collapsed onto her sleeping bag and the light snores ten minutes later told me she was asleep. After half an hour, darkness had fallen, and I couldn't sleep in case I was plagued by nightmares. Getting up, I decided to keep watch for a while, as I walked to the campfire I saw someone else's shadow, crouching low over the fire. The flames flickered and I saw a dirty face, with a permanent scowl on his face, beside the man lay a crossbow. So it was Daryl who was up. Figures. I stepped closer, and his head shot up to see where the noise came from, his eyes caught mine and he glared.

"Didn't realise anyone else was up." He mumbled, poking around in the fire with a stick, I sat down opposite him, and he raised an eyebrow at me.

"What, is it illegal to sit down now?" Daryl just shrugged, which irritated me even more. I pulled the bow off my back and leant it beside me, he turned his gaze to my weapon.

"Where'd ya get it?" He asked, I looked at the bow, it was chipped, and had probably once been beautiful.

"It was a friends, I took it when she died." I answered curtly, an uncomfortable silence surrounded us, and he began to rub his hands together in front of the fire,

"I, uh, heard ya talkin' with Carol's kid before, about ya family." When I didn't respond he went on. "You, ah, you have a brother out there too?"

"Yeah, except yours is a lot safer. Merle's gotta be what, in his late 30s?"

"He's 41."

"Right, and my brother, he's 16, big age difference."

"What was his name?"

"What?"

"His name, what was it, its not a hard question ya know."

"Linkin." Again, silence followed, but it wasn't awkward, it was a nice, peaceful silence. And he had to ruin it.

"I'm gonna hit the hay." He got up, and stalked off, then turned around sharply. And he left, before I could say anything.

"Wow."

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**Maddi POV**

"Okay, now everybody listen up, those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40." People just kept talking, so Shane banged his gun against the ground "Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan." He glanced at everyone "Any questions?" Morales looked at his wife, who elbowed him, he cleared his throat loudly.

"We're, uh, we're we're not going." It was clear he wasn't going into details, so Miranda continued for him

"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people."

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back." Rick warned

"We'll take the chance, I got to do what's best for my family."

"You sure?"

"We talked about it. We're sure."

"All right, Shane?"

"Yeah, all right." Rick reached behind him and grabbed a box of ammo

"The box is half full."

"Thank you all-for everything." Tears and hugs went all around, and I got a hug from Louis and Eliza, Miranda stroked my hair. Sophia and Eliza promised to stay friends, and Eliza handed a tearful Sophia her ragdoll.

"Channel 40 if you change your minds. All right?"

"Yeah. I know." They walked to their car

"Let's go. Let's move out." We walked to the R.V. I climbed in and Dale looked at Dakota regretfully

"We haven't got much room, we can try to squeeze you in but-" He was cut off by someone shouting in our direction

"She can ride with me!" I peered through the window to see Daryl stood, holding the passenger door open for my sister, she was grinning and climbed in. He shut the door, and got in himself, with some sort of smirk towards her. Huh. Wierd. I turned my attention back to Dale, who was rummaging through hiscupboards, he came out with a small purple box, which I recognised as some sort of Gameboy.

"I know its not much, but... I leant the Winnebago to a friend once, and his daughter must've left this here. I was planning on returning it when he came to visit, but I didn't get the chance. Its fully charged, no idea what games inside though." I took it and found there was a Barbie Detective game inside. I hated Barbie. But it was something to do, I suppose. The engine started, we honked our goodbyes to Morales and his family and then we were gone. An hour later, we were driving towards the C.D.C., when a hissing sound emitted from the engine. Dale began to mutter and I put the Gameboy down on the table. Glenn and Jacqui came to see what was wrong just as we stopped.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose." Dale complained as he stepped out of the Winnebago. Everyone else had stopped and exited their cars, I stood with Carol and Sophia whilst Dale checked the engine.

"Mom, whats going on?" Sophia asked, Carol smiled warmly and kissed her forehead lightly.

"Dale's R.V.'s needs fixing, thats all, we'll be on the road soon, don't worry sweetie." Sophia leaned on her mother and closed her eyes, not bothering to hide how tired she was, I yawned, and Carol put her arm around me, the warmth felt nice and I started to drift off. The voices faded into the background, all I heard was Shane saying he'd be right back, the whole group sat around, waiting. Carol's arm withdrew and she moved away from us.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." We stood there, until Sophia spoke.

"Where's your mom?"

"Dead." She looked down. "Before or after the walkers came?"

"After." A pause. "I'm sorry about your dad."

"Don't be, I didn't like him that much. What about yours?"

"My dad was a nice guy, he died saving me and my family."

"I wish my dad had been like yours then." She said enviously, hugging her new doll closer to her, I looked at it, the doll was a little scruffy and a few stitches were loose.

"Do you think it'll get fixed soon?" I asked her

"What'll get fixed?"

"The radiator hose."

"Oh, that. I hope, I don't wanna get caught by any of the walkers." She replied worriedly, I didn't say anything, just stayed silent until Carol came back over.

"Shane and T-Dog are back now, come on Sophia, back to the car. Maddi, you should get back to Dale now." Nodding, I walked to the R.V. and hopped inside, sitting back at the table with Glenn. Dale got behind the wheel and we were off again.

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**Dakota POV**

Well, if there was one thing we could be certain of, it was that the CDC wasn't being protected. Flies buzzed around numerous bodies, which lay littered on the ground. Shane and Rick stayed up ahead, whilst Carol and Sophia brought up the rear. So far no walkers had attacked us, so that was a good sign, I stepped over a dead body and wrinkled my nose in disgust.

"All right, everybody." Shane hissed. "Keep moving and stay quiet. Let's go." He led us closer to the building, and I could see the shutters were down, even from here. Shutters down, that generally means nobody's home, stood before the shutters, Rick rattled them first, then began to pound on them.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog pointed out

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick countered, low, rattling moans alerted us to another problem

"Walkers!" Carl began to whimper and Lori pulled him close to her, Daryl stormed towards Rick with obvious anger, his face was bright red. I nocked an arrow into my bow, and let it fly. It hit a walker through the head and the corpse fell motionless.

"You led us into a graveyard!"

"He made a call." To my surprise Shane defended Rick, despite being against coming here to begin with.

"It was the wrong damn call!"

"Just shut up. You hear? Shut up. Shut up! Rick, this is a dead end."

"Where are we gonna go?"

"She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark, Fort Benning, Rick, still an option."

"On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles, I checked the map."

"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now." Lori spat, fear wormed its way into me and I looked around for my sister, she stood holding hands with Sophia, I considered going over but decided against it. Daryl shot another walker limping towards us.

"Well, think of something."

"Come on, let's go. Let's get out of here."

"Let's go, please." A hand wrapped around my forearm. I attempted to shake it off but it hung on, trying to drag me back to the cars.

"All right, everybody back to the cars." Rick began to turn away, but something up on top of the shutters caught his attention, he stopped.

"The camera, it moved." We stopped to stare at him, the hand tugged impatiently, but I stayed put for now.

"You imagined it." Dale insisted, Rick shook his head and pointed up

"It moved, it moved."

"So what if it moved, its probably on an automatic scan or somethin' like that." I snapped. Shane stepped in and backed me up.

"Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device, it's gears, okay? They're just winding down." He glanced around. "Now come on, man, just listen to me, look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead, you need to let it go, Rick. Rick, there's nobody here!" Rick leapt forward suddenly, making me jump, and pounded on the shutters frantically.

"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me!"

"EVERYBODY GET BACK TO THE CARS NOW!" Shane roared, the hand pulled hard enough to almost knock me over, and a familiar man with a southern drawl whispered in my ear.

"Don' make me drag yur ass back girl, I ain't in the mood!" So it was Daryl, figured really, who else would be such an asshole and attempt to manhandle me back?

"Please, we're desperate, please help us. We have women, children, - no food, hardly any gas left."

"There's nobody here."

"We have nowhere else to go." More pounding on the door.

"Keep your eyes open."

"IF YOU DON'T LET US IN YOUR KILLING US!"

"Come on, buddy, let's go, let's go." Everyone was shouting at once, Shane, Lori and the majority begging, pleading, with Rick to just go, others from the fear of the walkers that were beginning to stalk to us.

"YOU'RE KILLING US! YOU'RE KILLING US! YOU'RE KILLING US!" He was screaming now, I was quite surprised I didn't have a headache. Shane was forced to drag him away, and we were moving away, when a strange hissing, like gas being let out, emitted from behind us. I turned, feeling Daryl's hand slide away, and I was surprised to find my arm felt cold now. The shutters shot up, revealing a bright white light.


End file.
